Advice regarding a Full and Final settlement

minimoke

I have been repaying a debt to the co-operative through Equidebt.

I have only been able to pay the token £1 a month via standing order for the last year, what with all the rises that we have all had to endure any extra i could have paid has been swallowed up.

Anyway i recently got a full and final settlement offer of 25% of my debt of £1,390ish, it was £347. I thought if i could ask a family memeber i could get rid of this one as they had become to be troublesome.
I could not make the deadline so i asked them to extend it for 2 weeks and i recieved a letter saying that as a special matter i could pay the £347 as full and fianl settlement on my liability, i only glanced down further and saw that this settlement figure has only been offered as a minimum repayment.

I dont understand how can they state in one paragraph this is a full and final settlement and then in another paragraph state it is only offered as a minimum repayment.

I have now recieved a 'with compliments' note and my balance has dropped by what i sent and also an attached SOA to fill in.

Where do i stand? Can anyone help me as i think i have just been hoodwinked into paying what i thought was an end to one of my debts.:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

poppyg_2

just bumping for you as not sure on the answer

tostao

you need to take all correspondence to c.a.b., let them advise on your position, hopefully they can challenge it for you.

minimoke

Thanks for your advice, i have emailed Payplan to see what they say and if i don't get any joy then i will take the trip to the CAB.

Hey_Dude

It might be worth you contacting CIS and threatening to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Not a lot of people know this - but if you complain to the FOS and they investigate your complaint - no matter whether your complaint is upheld or dismissed - the organisation concerned (CIS in this case) have to pay the FOS £500 as part of the wider agreement the FOS has with financial organisations.

So when you next contact CIS - make this very point to them - even be blunt "So you want me to cost you £500 then?" and explain that you understand how the above works.

This may push CIS into honouring their settlement.

Good luck to you,

Duder

Deep_In_Debt

Hey_Dude wrote: »

It might be worth you contacting CIS and threatening to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Not a lot of people know this - but if you complain to the FOS and they investigate your complaint - no matter whether your complaint is upheld or dismissed - the organisation concerned (CIS in this case) have to pay the FOS £500 as part of the wider agreement the FOS has with financial organisations.

So when you next contact CIS - make this very point to them - even be blunt "So you want me to cost you £500 then?" and explain that you understand how the above works.

This may push CIS into honouring their settlement.

Good luck to you,

Duder

That's good advice Dude. I work in Financial Services and we have to pay FOS about £480 I think it is, every time someone refers their complaint to the FOS for them to investigate. So it might be a good bargaining tool. Good luck.

minimoke

:T Thank you so much for this information, as you can probably understand i was so angry when i got this reply from them because as far as i am concerned is states in 2 of the letters from them it was for a full and final settlement.

I will certanily be firing off a letter to them stating the advice you have given me.

Deep_In_Debt

It sounds like they are being mis-leading. Good luck with it.